My name is Jason, and I’ve played and loved every Halo game. Reach is probably the best of the bunch. I’ve played quite a bit of multiplayer, but I don’t consider myself to be competitive in that regard. Admittedly, I’m probably nowhere near as skilled as David is. As such, I thought I’d talk about something a little different from your regular strategies.

There’s an element of randomness in all Halo games, especially Halo Reach, that makes it unique. Reach is filled with physics objects, explosives, vehicles, and more that all have unique behaviors. When you put them all together, you have a very dynamic game play experience that can sometimes throw any strategy that you’re using out the window. You just can’t plan around something that you can’t expect.

For instance, rockets in Reach have actual physical properties that can occasionally cause them to fly off in a random direction. If you fire a rocket at someone, and an explosion goes off near your rocket, it will spin out of control and you won’t know where it’ll hit. Likewise, you never know when you’ll get hit by someone else’s stray rocket, be it from a friend or a foe.

A favorite activity among Halo players is throwing random grenades all the way across the map in the hopes that they’ll just happen to hit someone. One of my favorite things to do on Valhalla is toss a grenade into the mancannon at either base, thus launching it hundreds of yards away. You never know… maybe you’ll get lucky!

Perhaps one of the most random aspects of Halo: Reach is the vehicles. With Reach’s fantastic physics, you can never be sure if your vehicle will be able to handle the maneuver you’re about to pull off, or if you’ll go tumbling, leaving you vulnerable. And if you’re on foot facing off with an enemy vehicle, you better be extra careful. Even if you manage to blow it up, you or a teammate could be killed by flying debris!

The dynamic and random nature of Halo games has always been really interesting to me, and it’s something you need to pay attention to and attempt to harness if you want to be really good at the game.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thank you Jason. Check Jason's blog out at http://gamesofart.blogspot.com/.

Containing many walkways and located by a Mag-Lev Train line, Boardwalk, is set in an urban plaza in the city of New Alexandria. Here is an image I've uploaded from within the game. It's a top view of the map containing a red and blue dot showing where both teams initially spawn.

Boardwalk has six power weapons; rockets, two snipers, two shotguns, and a plasma launcher. The shotguns and snipers spawn every two minutes, while rockets and plasma launcher spawn every three minutes. Each team has one sniper and one shotgun near each base. Blue team clearly has the advantage in this map though, with top spawn and rockets being closer to their spawn, while red team normally gets plasma launcher.Keys to Success

Taking control of rockets and snipers almost always guarantees victory in Boardwalk, that's why blue team has the advantage here, or do they? There is a way for red team to get rockets before blue team but it rarely happens. The trick is using jet pack around the glass window under skybridge and catching blue team of guard. Since this map has many distinct locations, making call outs is always crucial. Here is a list of the call outs within Boardwalk:

Unlike most maps, top map control isn't really important here if you just want to get rockets. Since rockets spawn in the service tunnels on the bottom floor, guarding the bottom is the best way to get rockets. The best setup doesn't include guarding rockets until the time comes. You need one sniper at top sniper spawn and another teammate with rockets at skybridge. The other sniper should be at the visitor center while the last teammate gets ready for new rockets spawn with a shotgun.

One of the original maps from the Beta, Powerhouse, is an asymmetrical map that is set in a hydroelectric facility. Here is an image I've uploaded from within the game. It's a top view of the map containing a red and blue dot showing where both teams initially spawn.

Powerhouse has five power weapons; rockets, focus rifle, grenade launcher, hammer, and shotgun. Red team again clearly has the advantage in this map, with rockets, hammer, and grenade launcher being right in front of their spawn. Blue team normally gets focus rifle and shotgun. Shotgun, rockets, and focus rifle spawn every three minutes, while hammer spawns every two minutes, and grenade launcher spawns every 90 seconds.

Keys to SuccessSimilar to Reflection, taking control of rockets almost always guarantees victory in Powerhouse. Since this map also has many distinct locations, team work and call outs are always crucial. Here is a list of the call outs within Powerhouse:

Top map control is really important in this medium sized, power weapon-heavy map, if you always want to get rockets. Having a teammate with rockets at Powerhouse 2nd floor almost guarantees your team will get rockets. Another teammate should stand at top red spawn with a focus rifle, but be careful for enemies spawn behind you at rock garden. The last two teammates should keep an eye out for new weapon re-spawns, one should camp hammer room with a hammer and the other at top blue spawn with a shotgun.

The Halo 2 remake of Ivory Tower, Reflection, is set in New Alexandria at the Sinoviet HM Tower. Here is an image I've uploaded from within the game. It's a top view of the map containing a red and blue dot showing where both teams initially spawn.

Reflection has four power weapons; rockets, sniper, sword, and shotgun. Red team clearly has the advantage in this map, with rockets being right in front of their spawn. Blue team normally gets sniper unless red team uses jet pack to get to the top floor first. Blue team usually gets sword, while shotgun is always up for grabs. All four power weapons spawn every three minutes.

Keys to Success

Taking control of rockets almost always guarantees victory, that's why red team has the advantage. At the start, all blue team can do is hope no one from red team uses jet pack and steals the sniper. Since this map has so many distinct locations, making call outs is always crucial. Here is a list of the call outs within Reflection:

Top map control is really important in Reflection if you always want to get rockets and sniper. For that, you need sniper at high balcony (aka sniper spawn) and a teammate with shotgun guarding shotgun lift. You also want a teammate holding sword to guard the other lifts while the last teammate watches the snipers back by looking at elevator shaft.

The current number one at Halocharts.com, Chris, shares his thoughts on Pinnacle. To assist him, here is an image I've uploaded from within the game. It's a top view of the map containing a red and blue dot showing where both teams initially spawn.

Chris: Well that all depends on what team I'm in.When I'm blue, I drop down for rockets and if I don't get them, I take the teleporter and get the shotgun. After that I'll look back to see if our sniper is still up. When I get rockets I normally head top mid and try to kill the opposing teams' sniper. With shotgun I'd head into the other teams base and take control of it. And with a sniper I'd stay at our base and help out my teammates.

If I'm in the red team, then that means we get the top spawn but only get the sniper. Red team is heavily at a disadvantage when compared to blue team in Pinnacle. I'd usually go after sniper at the start and head back to our base, if that fails then I'll try to get the shotgun and attempt to stop their rockets. The only thing left to do would be to rush the other teams' sniper.

What would be the perfect setup in this map? Where would you want all your teammates to be positioned at all times?

This map can be really unfair if you have a good team setup. If you have one teammate at each tower with a sniper you are pretty much set. But if you want to make the other team quit, then have a teammate positioned at banshee (bottom left of map) with rockets and another at shotgun spawn with shotgun. There's not much the other team can do against that setup in this map so they'll probably quit.

My oldest teammate in the Halo series, Omri, has also broken into the top 100 at Halocharts.com. I asked him a few a questions regarding strategies for Countdown. To assist him, here is an image I've uploaded from within the game. It's a top view of the map containing a red and blue dot showing where both teams initially spawn.

Omri: Well I like it, mainly because of its symmetry, symmetrical maps normally have the same weapon spawns mirrored on each side, making the match more fair than non symmetrical maps. In the end the better team usually wins.

How do you normally start of a match in Countdown?

At the start I normally run down the steps from our spawn and take the lift to sword. If for some reason I'm not able to get sword, I always have my trusty DMR with me. I would then look down at shotgun spawnbut it's most likely going be taken by now. With only two power weapons in the whole map, there's not much you can do at the start besides try to establish top map control as soon as possible.

What do you think is the best strategy or the best setup for this map?

Well the best strategy would be to have top map control right from the start, like I said, that would easily give your team the advantage. The best setup would definitely consist of one teammate with a shotgun guarding the top lifts by balcony, and another teammate with sword watching the two other lifts by sword spawn. The other two teammates should be in watching over new weapon spawns and helping out with call outs. Countdown is all about top map control.